Wichita eagle., 1887-10-05
A GOOD SCHOOL TRADE.

The Kind of Business Done by Candy
and Cigarette Shops in New York.
6NANDY, cigars, stationery and notion store;
" doing good school trade. - East - st. "
0OANDY STORE, opposite big public school;
" first class trade in confectionery, cigarettes
and stationery. Apply at - West - 81"
A young man with few hundred dollars
to invest answered several of these advertise
ments. In each case he found a small dingy
shop with great heaps of painted candy, pack
ages Of cheap cigarettes and plentiful supplies
of blood and thunder literature on the
shelves A few dusty school books completed
the stock. In each case, too. the little shop
was near public school Some nestled close
up to the big buildings. Others were across
the street or on corners diagonally situated.
All were less than a stones throw distant.
HOur trade comes almost exclusively from
the school children" said the proprietor of
one griiny little shop. "They are lively Gus
toners before and after school and at recess
This is the dull season, because vacation has
just begun. Trade will pick up again in Sep
TENDER. Then it is sure and steady until
spring Last year l made net profit of no
less than 81 200"
"The demand for school books must be
pretty heavy"
ooh, no; we sell very few school books"
@What dc you sell that makes your trade
SO proftable?"
"Candy and cigarettes, principally. You'd
be surprised at tn, quantity of candy those
youngsters devour. The little boys and girls
rush in here with their pennies and buy a
stick of painted candy whenever they get the
chance. Ali the larger boys buy a cigarette
or two every day It's only a penny business,
OF course, with penny profits. But when you
take care of the pennies the dollars'll take
care OF themselves you know Why, made
500 clear profit last year on candies alone
For, to tell the truth the sweet stuff is the
very cheapest sort. But the children like it
just as well. | wouldn't sell out at all if it
were not that am going to leave town be-
fore fall, when trade will be resumed at its
liveliest.s
Similar statements were made by all the
other candy store advertisers, and strong in
ducements to purchase were held out to the
young man. Being of nice moral sense.
however. be decided not to invest in a bust
ness which seemed to him like corruptine the
rising generation by supplying them with
cheap and perhaps poisonous painted candy
and cigarettes This idea impressed him
so strongly that he asked a school prin-
cipal about it,
"You are right said he. This candy
shop business is one of the most pernicious
features of school life. We call the shops
candy hells.' The red, green, blue and vel
low coloring matter annually used In its
manufacture would paint the town in alter
nate stripes from the Battery to Harlem
bridge Five cents worth of the stuff would
lay professional athlete on his back for
week, but forty pound scboolboy can con-
sumo five cents worth every day for six
months and be a sixty-pound schoolboy at the
end of that period. The ways of the in
fantile stomach are inscrutable. and even the
candy shop cannot affect it. Still, these
candy bells are literally training schools for
future generations Of dyspeptics and men
with handmade sets of teeth But we are
powcrlcSs to prevent it. New York Sun